Thursday, September 18, 2014

Throwback Thursday: Sentimental Value

This Throwback Thursday post comes from my retired blog, The Joy Panda. It was originally posted January 4, 2013. In light of my recent posts on Tiny Joys about simplifying and minimizing, I find this particular post to be quite interesting. I have had a problem in the past with parting with items I consider to be sentimental. This has led to me becoming a bit of a pack rat. I began a post a few months back about how to part with sentimental items, but I never finished the post. Two of the qualifications I set for keeping a sentimental item were, number one, Can and will you fix it? And number two, Will you use it? In this throwback post I talk about finding and fixing my childhood sewing box, which I am glad to say I am still using today.

I hope you enjoy this sweet sentimental piece. Maybe it will inspire you to explore your basement and attic in search for long lost treasures.

Enjoy.

"Sentimental Value" January 4, 2013

While I was at home for Christmas I was poking around in the basement and I came across my childhood sewing box. When I was five years old my parents got me and my older sister sewing boxes for Christmas. Mine was blue and my sister's was pink, they were just like the sewing box my mom had purchased for herself. They were filled with basic sewing supplies and a cross-stitch kit to make bibs for our baby sister, who was on the way. I am not sure if I ever finished that bib, but that was the start of it all for me. I have kept that box all these years and it has a lot of sentimental value to me.

So you can understand my distress when I found it in the basement with the lining falling apart inside. I brought it upstairs and sat at the kitchen table to go through the box's contents. My mom walked by at that moment. With a sigh she commented, "Oh, that old box probably isn't worth keeping at this point." "Probably not," I sadly agreed. But I still hated the thought of throwing it out. I had always imagined giving it to my own daughter one day. As I played around with the sagging satin lining, my mom watched over my shoulder. There was really no way to mend it by sewing. I could tell that the lining of this box had originally been glued in place. Then my mom made a suggestion, just as the same idea came to my mind. "Maybe you could fix it with the glue gun?" My mom is so smart. I just so happened to find my old glue gun the night before. Happy day! I fired it up, squeezed, squeezed, squeezed and managed to reattach the satin lining while only burning myself once. I was very pleased to see my box almost as good as new. This box is not heirloom quality, to say the least, but its sentimental value makes it irreplaceable Even though I could have easily thrown it out and bought a better made one, to me it was worth it to take the time to fix it.

As fun as rediscovering my old sewing box was, something just as fun was what I found inside it. It was like stepping back in time. I found little bits of embroidery thread and fabric from past projects and a vast array of buttons and beads which I used to diligently collect, but never use. I found a simple doll pattern that had gone unfinished, a piece of fabric that looked like the makings of a primitive Barbie dress, and a small drawstring bag that was only a few inches of stitching away from completion. The most interesting thing to me was the draw string bag. I just barely remember starting that project, though I don't remember exactly why I wanted to make it. I was an adventurous young girl that loved the thought of finding and hiding treasure. I had seen so many movies with precious little bags of gold, I am sure I wanted to make one to keep my own coins in. I can only guess I was about ten when I started it. It was made from jersey material that I had probably salvaged from an old sweatshirt. I can imagine it took me a few days to piece together a bag that would only take me 30 minutes today. It was so close to being finished, I couldn't just leave it that way. So using bits of thread I found in the bottom of my sewing box, and a few pieces of yarn I found in my old bedroom closest I finished the drawstring bag that was 14 years in the making. What treasure did I decide to put inside it? My collection of random buttons. I think my ten year old self would be pleased.

So, what sentimental items do you have hidden away in your house? Is there a way you can pull them out, re-purpose them and bring them back into your everyday life? I would love to hear your ideas.